The Diabetes Link Nurse programme has been developed to improve the knowledge, skills and confidence of registered nurses and their teams working with patients with diabetes in the community. The programme is open all registered nurses supporting patients in the North Devon community including community nurses, practice nurses and registered nurses and care home nurses.
The Diabetes Link Nurse programme is structured around a knowledge framework for diabetes nursing which consists of a core set of key skills in:
- Promoting self-care
- Oral Therapies
- Injectable therapies
- Hypoglycaemia
- Hyperglycaemia
- Neuropathy
- Nutrition
Diabetes Link nurses act as a link between their own clinical area and the Diabetes Specialist Nurse team. Diabetes Link nurses have a specialist interest in diabetes and work within the knowledge framework for diabetes nursing.
Diabetes Link Nurses are part of a network of nurses who strive to increase awareness of best practice in managing patients with diabetes.
The Diabetes link nurse programme launched Monday 8th October 2018 with a full days training event. The programme was so successful that a second full days training event was held Wednesday 12th December 2018.
Link Nurse quarterly meeting January 2019
The full day of training covered each of the 7 key skills. At this training event diabetes link nurses had the opportunity to sign off the skills they are competent in and identify where they need to focus future learning.
The link nurses meet quarterly:
Tuesday 23rd July 2019
Tuesday 8th October 2019
The quarterly half day link nurse meetings are used to support staff by delivering training needs identified, sharing new information, changes in practice and service development, as well as a topic of the link nurses’ choice for example a case study or reflection on an incident relating to the care of a patient with diabetes.
If you are interested in joining the link nurse programme please contact Poe Budge, Diabetes Specialist Nurse or Natalie Evans-Lee, Administrator – Diabetes Specialist Nurses.